Veronica Revisited

“I could point out that you’ll be spoiled if you read the below, but come on. Isn’t that how the internet works? Isn’t that what you want? When it comes down to it, aren’t we trying to hurt ourselves?”

Veronica’s voice was still right there. Wasn’t it? If anything, she’s settled into her voice more. Less brittle for no reason, more wry because it’s taken care of her her whole life.

I missed some of that whole life. Yes, we know what happened: she went to Stanford and got back with Piz but like…did she ever have another boyfriend? Did she take a soulless job to get through law school? Did she sabotage Keith’s love life anymore?

The answer is, we don’t know and we can’t know, because there was so much time spent on seeing everyone we know. In a way, this was delightful and necessary (Corny!), and in a way, I didn’t care that much about Madison Sinclair that I ever needed to see her again (Mac’s little sister, on the other hand, I could’ve). This was the hardest thing about the Veronica Mars movie. The show was such an ambitious mix of plot and character, always. When I got the chance to hang out with all the characters again, I really wanted to hang. To get deep. We got little teases of the people we knew, but sometimes it felt like we sacrificed depth for sheer numbers.

I didn’t feel like that about Veronica and Keith. God I love these two. God their interactions now are as authentic as they ever were. In fact, the strongest throughline of the whole movie was his wonder and pride at how much she was able to accomplish. That she made it out and made a life for herself. Keith couldn’t want anything more for her – he knows how difficult it is.

But I got a little annoyed with his constant admonitions about her romantic life. Veronica is still young, and why should he be so fussed over Piz? It’s only Piz. But then I realized – Keith is Piz. Keith is the strong, reliable, moral choice who isn’t going to run out on you. Piz is never going to flake off because he can’t handle what’s going on. Veronica, on the other hand, is. Like her mother.

“The hero is the one that stays.” Remember that?

The fact is that, as she alludes, Veronica is a drama addict and I believe her infatuation with Logan is more about the drama than the actual love for Logan. Am I right?

Speaking of Logan. There were a couple of things in the movie that just didn’t sit right with me. Because of the press blitz and the open nature of how the movie got made and everything else, most have been explained away. Rob Thomas wanted to give the fans what they wanted, and mostly that involved the people they wanted.

So. Veronica, check to the max. Keith, check. Complicated. Not a marshmallow. Mac, Wallace, sure. Not interesting, really, but sure. Dick, check. Dick is check plus, actually, just because he’s such a party favour. “Missionary, natch” was my favourite throwaway insult of the whole movie.

Logan is…missing something. His eyes were dead. Where in the past he’s been begging Veronica to keep him human, this seemed like he was dead inside. The death of his girlfriend (yeah, okay, ex) didn’t seem to affect him. He didn’t even seem that worried for his reputation or the jail time that was coming to him. And…the outfit was great, but I could have dealt with at least a smirky comment about his leaf having turned over. Or more of one. More Logan. Somehow. He wasn’t all the way there.

To that end, Veronica was very obviously never all the way there when it came to Piz. After she bit her lip while phone-dumping him, we never heard her give it a second thought. Who is this cold woman who can dump a man and a job for nothing?

And it’s not just any man. (He works at This American Life! Hi Ira Glass!) It’s a man with whom she made a sex tape that wound up played at her high school graduation. I have to give a bit of side-eye to that one because she makes such a big point of saying she doesn’t care about it, so…huh?

My last grouse had to do with Carrie Bishop. Meester, whyyyy couldn’t you come do the movie? The answer is that she was shooting something else, and that she’s not important enough to either production to have them move their shoots – but it took me out of it every time they said “Carrie Bishop”. Of course, they could have used a different name from high school, but who? Carrie had the established friendship with Susan Knight (remember “Sweet Knees”?), she had the slightly adversarial relationship with Veronica, and she had a slightly prickly quality that I buy Logan being attracted to. So what could they have done? Gia could have been the pop star actually, but Krysten Ritter was so much fun in the role she did play and got more screen time that way. So their hands were tied.

And now I’ll tell you what I did like. When Veronica tells Weevil about what happened to get him framed and he says he’ll handle it, she knows exactly what’s going to happen. In fact, she hopes for it. If she stays in Neptune, she gets to be as morally ambiguous as the town itself. No pretending to be a white hat all the time. She lives in the middle – which is where we like her. Women don’t get to be shades of grey very often. The fact that there’s a complex layered one on the big screen is a massive triumph, whether Veronica fans or not.